1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus, a method, and a computer-readable recording medium for license acquirement support, and more particularly, to an apparatus, a method, and a computer-readable recording medium for supporting acquirement of a license of a program of an electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
With recent image forming apparatuses called multi-function machines, new applications can be developed and installed into the image forming apparatuses even after the image forming apparatuses have been shipped. It would be convenient for the user if the license of the application could be provided separately with the entity of the application according to the type of usage of the user. Moreover, providing the license separately could also be a chance for expansion for those selling the application.
However, acquiring licenses for each image forming apparatus can be extremely complicated in a user environment where many image forming apparatuses are used. Accordingly, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-243179 discloses a license obtaining apparatus that uniformly performs the tasks of obtaining licenses of applications for plural image forming apparatuses.
However, by having the license obtaining apparatus interposed between a license server (origin issuing the license) and an image forming apparatus (image forming apparatus for executing an application of the license), there is a high possibility of inconsistency between the status of the licenses managed by the license server and the status of the licenses acquired by the image forming apparatus. There may be a case where the license obtaining apparatus fails to distribute a license to the image forming apparatus (acquiring of license) even in a case where the license is successfully issued from the license server to the license obtaining apparatus. In this case, the license server recognizes that a license is already issued even though the image forming apparatus has not actually acquired the license. Therefore, even if re-issuing of the license is requested to the license server, the request would be denied because the license is already issued. As a result, the application cannot be used in the image forming apparatus.